Paris 1946 – and the Doctor is on the trail of a creature that hunts by sound…

Tim Foley’s musical tale maintains the standard set by the opener for this second box set, Respond to All Calls, with a story that will have more resonance for anybody either musically talented or who loves to listen. There are some comments within – not just from Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor but from Damian Lynch’s Artie Berger and Gemma Whelan’s Zazie Vincent (and the way the credits were delivered produced a smile) – that reflect the power of music to heal and its ability to reflect the way we feel. It’s one of those stories that makes you reconsider the characters and their relationships constantly as it plays out – Adrian Schiller’s Maurice is key to this.

As with Girl, Disconnected, it seems as if Eccleston is considerably more comfortable back in the role – Foley gives him some beautiful quiet moments, and some self-discovery as the Ninth Doctor tries to find his place both in the universe and in his own mind. He understands all too well the cost of war, and the pain of grief, and while that’s not overstated, it’s an underlying theme of the story that the odd catch of the voice allows to come through. Director Helen Goldwyn brings out the nuances of the script and its subtext without hammering the listener over the head.

Going right back to the very early days of Big Finish, Justin Richards’ Whispers of Terror really played into the audio nature of the story, and Foley does similar here, throwing more than a few curveballs at sound designer Iain Meadows (you can imagine him going ‘you’re doing that… there… with THAT?’ when he read the script), which Meadows deals with very well. Howard Carter’s score also reflects the period and helps the ambience.

Verdict: Another very strong adventure for the Ninth Doctor, and also highly recommended. 9/10

Paul Simpson

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